Saturday, February 27, 2010

The problem with dolls that have straight arms that go slightly outwards from the body is getting certain items of clothing on the doll. For example, if the hands are far from each other, you need a very wide shirt or one made of very stretchy material. I solved the problem by making the shirt in two parts.

In the picture, you can see that, instead of having front and back pieces, this one has left and right. There will be opening in both front and back.

This is the finished shirt. I used velcro for fastening and attached some trimming in front, because I didn't feel like sewing in fake buttons.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Just found Michael Paul Smith's photos in Flickr and this one explains what he used for creating a diner. Be sure to check his other photos as well. They are amazing. You'd think the scenes are real, if you didn't know you're watching a miniature.

This one is a Lipstik doll by Charisma (Marie Osmond's company). I think these were made only for a year or two, which is really a shame as this doll is well made and much more suitable for little girls than, for example, Bratz dolls. I know my niece was thrilled when I gave her one (plus some outfits) for a birthday present a couple of years ago.

My doll's hair is not original. It's a wig by Monique, which I got for my American Model doll, but turned out to be a bit too big. Fortunately, the size works well for this doll and for Bratz dolls.

The skirt is made of a sock. All it needed was turning the hem, which I sewed by hand. Pictures of making the boots can be found in my other blog. Below are some photos of the outfit details.

The bodice is made of stretchy jeans fabric. I treated the edges with Fray Stop, because the fabric was so thick that it was the only practical solution. I used Fray Stop also for attaching the gold trimming. The eyelets are heart shaped, although after hammering them into place, the shape isn't as clear as before. The choker is a piece of see-through decorative band with a glass ornament glued into it and secured with sealer. The beads are made of plastic and attached to each other using gold plated wire.

One bracelet is made of silver-colored leather. It was a leftover piece from making shoes for Sybarite. There's another piece of glass here, glued and secured with sealer.

The mechanism for attaching the bracelet is the same as in the shoes. It is really the simplest way and guarantees that the bracelet won't fall off.

The other bracelet is made of plastic beads in elastic thread. The ring is a smaller copy of the bracelet above, only without a lock. I couldn't get a metal ring to stay in place, so I decided to use leather instead. Now that I've thought about it for some time, I think a metal ring would be possible, if you glue something inside it to cause enough friction for the ring to not fall off. I'll have to try and figure out what would be suitable material for that.

Monday, February 1, 2010

This is not actually made by me, I just designed the text, which is a quote from a man who made a deep impression on me when I saw his lecture on YouTube. Here is the lecture, which I hope you will find as fascinating as I did. The part where I took the quote from is around the 17 minute mark.

Here is the text on a shirt. I'm ordering the one shown here, but you can get the text on many different types of shirts. And to be honest, yes, I do get a small royalty, if someone orders a shirt I designed. However, my main purpose was to get the shirt for myself, but I made it public in case someone else likes the quote as much as I do.